Tag archives for los angeles angels

Angels Survive At Home

23rd October 2009 by SportsFags under Baseball Jocks, Featured     

If history teaches us anything it’s that teams facing elimination at home perform well. Even more so when the opposing team knows they are headed back home for two games with a chance to close it out.

Nick Swisher and the Yankees rally come up short in LA

Nick Swisher and the Yankees rally come up short in LA

Angels’ closer Brian Fuentes was shaky in the save situation walking A-Rod, Matsui and then hitting Robinson Cano all with two outs in the ninth, but when Nick Swisher once again failed with runners in scoring position the Angels breathed a sigh of relief and packed their bags for the Big Apple.

What’s surprising about this series isn’t that the Yankees had a 3-1 lead but that the normally reliable Angels’ defense was doing them in. The real question here is not whether the Angels can win the series but rather will the Yankees blow a 3-1 lead? In 2004 the Yankees blew a 3-0 series lead to the Red Sox but the 2009 edition of the New York Yankees is a much stronger team.

The Angels season was on the line last night at home and they played with a sense of urgency. Expect the Yankees to play with that same sense of urgency when Andy Pettitte takes the mound Saturday night for game six. New York absolutely wants to avoid a seventh and deciding game where the entire series could turn either way on one play. Even if the Angels somehow overcome a more focused Yankee squad and one of the most decorated post season pitchers in the history of the game on Saturday, they will have to face a fully rested CC Sabathia in game seven.

Get your popcorn ready for a New York / Philadelphia World Series.

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Angels are Blowing it

18th October 2009 by SportsFags under Baseball     

Uncharacteristically the Los Angeles Angels are blowing it. An organization known for great defense has committed five errors in the their first two games of the ALCS and return to LA facing an 0-2 series deficit. Yet, it’s the mental mistakes that beat them Saturday night.

Aybar can't handle Izturis' wild throw at second as Cano slides. John Munson-The Star Ledger

Aybar can't handle Izturis' wild throw at second as Cano slides. John Munson-The Star Ledger

Second baseman’s Macier Izturis throwing error in the bottom of the 13th allowed Jerry Hairston to score all the way from second and left many of us scratching our heads. Why would Iztuirs, on the run to his left taking him away from second and towards first, wheel around and throw to second versus squaring up and getting a sure out at first? Mental mistake.

Yet, it wouldn’t have gotten into the 13th without Brian Fuentes mental boner in the bottom if the 11th. Leading 3-2, Angels closer Brian Fuentes challenged Alex Rodriguez with three straight fast balls. A-Rod watched the first two go by for called strikes. For some reason Fuentes decided he could get another high fast ball past Rodriguez. If you’re gonna miss to A-Rod it better not be over the plate. Ahead in the count 0-2 why would Fuentes not bust A-Rod in on his hands to take away his power? Down in the count A-Rod did what most great hitters do, he choked up on the bat to shorten his swing. However, when he saw essentially the same pitch Fuentes threw him to start the inning he swung away and muscled it into the right field seats.

Izturis’ mental mistake and throwing error will be remembered as the play that cost the Angels in game 2 but it was Fuentes decision that prevented the Angels from stealing game 2 and home field advantage away from the Yankees.

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Yankees and Angels face off for AL Crown

16th October 2009 by SportsFags under Baseball, Featured     

As baseball organizations go, the Yankees and Angels are about as good as it gets. Over the course of 162 games, New York and Los Angeles / Anaheim proved to be the class of the American League. And although many baseball fans fell in love with the prospect of another Yankees / Red Sox ALCS the Angels should offer the Yankees more of a challenge.

I am one of these guys who thinks there’s a higher level of play right now in the American League and so I think the winner of this series will ultimately win the World Series. And I want to pick the Angels in this series but I just can’t. The Yankees have been rolling through the second half of this season like a team with all of the money in the world to spend on players — wait a minute, they do.

The regular season series is tied at five games each and although the Angels have added more power to their lethal mix of speed, defense and pitching it will not be enough to overcome the Empire.

Derek Jeter

Derek Jeter

They Yankees are going with a three-man rotation of C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte. Why? Because they feel it gives them the best shot at winning this series. The Angels rotation — John Lackey, Joe Saunders, Jered Weaver and Scott Kazmir — is solid, but over matched. Furthermore, it’s hard to adequately describe the advantage Mariano Rivera gives New York. Just consider that when Rivera comes in to close out a game you just lost. He’s the only true, consistent, shut down closer over the past ten years and he’s looking really strong.

I think if you polled the Yankees players, and they answered truthfully, you would find they consider the Angels a bigger threat than either the Dodgers or the Phillies. Yet with Alex Rodriguez heating up and the consistent play of Mark Teixeira and arguably the games best ever post season player, Derek Jeter, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the Angels advance.

The SportsFags prediction — Yankees in six.

Observation
I don’t think it’s coincidence that 3 of the 4 championship series managers (Joe Torre, Mike Sciosia and Joe Girardi) are former major league catchers.

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